The Craft

The crafting process in the Pinegrove Leather workshop is pretty slow and intensive.

First each shoulder or side of leather needs to be checked over for marks and faults. We have to work round them when cutting out, but we're pretty good at minimising waste. We respect the cow, and leather is expensive too.

Much of the making process uses simple hand tools.

We also have manually operated devices, such as the riveter or the edge beveller. Our sewing machines are simple but powerful beasts that take a lot of skill and patience to use. They can easily mess up a nearly-finished item. A stitch hole in the wrong place is a disaster that can't be covered up. We're perfectionists and things have got to be right. Mistakes don't get missed. We have a box of straps and cases which have faults, which we sell off at festivals or on our Special Offers web page. That said, we often have to show buyers what the problem is, as they can't see it for themselves.

Care in providing a comfortable strap as well as something that looks good is paramount.

Have you ever had a leather strap that cut into your shoulder? Our single-thickness straps, made from 8oz leather (3.5mm thick),go through a time-hungry 5-stage process of bevelling, polishing, dyeing, sealing and more polishing.

We take just as much care over the rivets and buckles too.

It's usually solid brass that won't rust, sometimes with a nickel plated finish. At the design stage, we make sure there are no metal parts inside cases that are going to rub against valuable instruments. Most of our straps have no metalwork or have protection systems so that dinks can't happen.

We even take care over packing your Pinegrove purchase

The finished article is placed in a soft cotton bag to keep it in good condition while on its journey to you, wherever in the world you may be. It comes with a lifetime guarantee, care instructions, stickers and usually a beer mat or some other freebie. We like freebies.